The intention, he said, wasn’t to be political but to remind Jones to conduct himself honorably inside the cage.

“What I was saying was, ‘Go check on Lyoto,’ what I meant was to remember that you’re a public figure,” Jackson said. “There’s always attention on you and what you’re doing all the time, and there’s cage etiquette. There’s things you’re supposed to do, and going and checking on somebody is what you’re supposed to do.

“And now because I’m in military mode and in shorthand mode, I say, ‘Jon, go check on Lyoto and go get some fans,’ and what I should have said was, ‘You’re a public figure. There’s a way to conduct yourself.’ But instead, I shorthanded it.”

Light-heavyweight champ Jones (15-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) submitted Machida (17-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) with a modified guillotine choke in the second round in the headliner of this past Saturday’s UFC 140 event, which took place at Air Canada Centre in Toronto and aired live on pay-per-view.

There are several unwritten rules between fighters and camps when it comes to the time before, during and after fights inside the octagon. One of the most well-recognized is the act of shaking hands with the opposing fighter and his coaches. But frequently when an injury takes place during a fight, or there is a particularly devastating stoppage, a fighter is seen attending to his downed opponent as medical officials tend to him.

In most cases, fighters are seen embracing as the official decision is announced inside the cage.

While Jackson’s words implied a certain lack of care from Jones toward Machida, he said that isn’t the case.

“That’s the point I want to drive home,” Jackson said. “Jon is a really good guy. Everybody is just attacking his character because that’s what you have to attack when you can’t attack somebody’s fighting.

“It’s not that he was a bad guy. You just literally go crazy. None of these guys outside of the cage could understand that after the fight, you’re in the zone, man. It’s such an intense camp, especially for Jon, month after month, fight after fight.

“Let’s take B.J. Penn for an example. He’s actually a really nice guy; he walks around licking blood off his gloves all the time. Chuck Liddell is one of the sweetest, nicest guys you’ll ever meet, but when he knocks you unconscious, he runs around screaming and pumping his arms. That’s not normal behavior. So my job with Jon is to remind him. When the referee said break, he broke, and then he was still there in that zone. I was like, ‘Now, it’s time to relax and calm down and check on the guy.’ I should have said, ‘Remember your public figure.’ But like I say, ‘Go get some Donald Cerrone,’ I said, ‘Go get some fans.'”

But as Jackson has become accustomed to during his time as a trainer to world-class fighters, he said his words and actions are frequently misinterpreted.

“So it’s just a matter of time before everyone gets mad at me again,” Jackson joked.

The silver lining, of course, is the performance of his fighter, who defended his belt for the second time in his fourth performance of this year. While Jones’ struggled with Machida and appeared flustered in the first round, he took complete control in the second after taking the former champ to the ground and opening a cut with an elbow. After rocking Machida with a punch late in the frame, he seized upon a choke and put the Brazilian out cold.

“Machida came in with a great plan; he was trying to interrupt Jon’s strikes in between what I call a ‘heaviola’ style of fighting,” Jackson said “You put a note in between the notes, where every time they go to do something, you interrupt them. That was a brilliant, brilliant tactic. It worked very well for him.

‘[Jones] got hit a few times really hard. He showed that he had a great jaw. He got kind of flustered and confused for a little bit and was able to bring it back and reconnect with everything. He got tested and he passed the test. I was so proud of him for that.”

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